


Live long enough as the hero and eventually you'll become the villain

by moor



Series: Tumblr request [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Modern Crime Syndicate / Superhero AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 20:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12849285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moor/pseuds/moor
Summary: "Live long enough as the hero and eventually you'll become the villain" with angsty ItaSaku please!! :D -hiraishiin





	Live long enough as the hero and eventually you'll become the villain

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous asked: "Live long enough as the hero and eventually you'll become the villain" with angsty ItaSaku please!! :D -hiraishiin  
> \-------------------------  
> This one got wayyyyyy too long, sorry! Also, unfinished b/c it is now 2am and I need to hit the hay. If I have time I’ll come back to it this weekend.
> 
> AN: Superhero AU… where I completely ignore the fact that Itachi’s birthday is during the summer.  
> Rating: T-M?

Itachi looked down at the collection of criminals, their neat ligatures and the tidy pile of stolen arms labelled with dates, source locations for the weapons, and each criminal’s name and address pinned to his back.

“It was her again, wasn’t it?” said Shisui under his breath, leaning close to Itachi.

“Ah,” said Itachi.

“There are seven of them,” he remarked.

“Ah.”

A beat of silence.

“She took down seven grown men, criminals, on her own.”

“Ah.”

Shisui let out a long whistle, nodding as he counted the thieves.

“Next time she stops by, tell her I said thanks.”

Shisui clapped Itachi on the back before waving at a group of officers who supervised the gang.

Itachi took a breath, fingering the cellphone in his pocket.

*****

The window was open, as he’d left it nightly for the last six months. But the cold weather would be arriving soon. He would need to reconsider…

The softest scuff from the window ledge had Itachi pausing as he lifted the kettle from the stove.

He turned to the cabinet over the sink, pulling down an extra cup.

“Nice collar this morning,” she said.

“I concur,” he said.

He lifted a steaming cup to the beautiful young woman in the black athletic wear.

“It’s getting chilly at night,” he said as she eased into a seat at his kitchen table. His sharp eyes took in the slight limp starting at her ankle.

From the back of the next cupboard over, he withdrew a solid white plastic case with a red cross on the top.

“How’s your wrist?” he asked.  
“All better.” She held out a small, wrapped package to him. “Here. Thanks.”

He nodded at the couch, accepting the tensor bandage back from her. “Thank you. I’ll put this to good use. On your ankle,” he said meaningfully. He gestured at her foot.

“It’s fine.”

Quick as a viper he lunged for her leg and made to grab for her ankle; yet she was faster, leaping over the back of the chair and landing in a crouch with a subtle wince.

Her eyes narrowed at him, hurt and mistrustful.

He arched a brow.

“There’s a rumour about a certain ring of slave traders moving in,” he said, holding her eyes.

Her nostrils flared in anger.

“Ankle,” said Itachi.

He placed a pillow on the seat across from hers.

“The information,” she said.

“The ankle,” said Itachi.

There was an extended, heavy silence between the pair as they faced off.

“And a name,” he added.

“I always give you names,” she said.

“Not theirs.”

Her brows drew together.

*****

A week later, paired together again, Shisui and Itachi looked over the latest group of criminals bound and gagged and, ironically, wrapped in a ribbon.

“So, uh, I got you something for your birthday,” said Shisui, handing over a gift card to his cousin.

“Thank you.”

“I don’t think it’s as good as this gift, though.”

Itachi sighed.

“So, she knew it was your birthday,” said Shisui. He tucked his hands into his pockets. “Is this a new level in your relationship?”

“There are no levels,” said Itachi. “There’s no relationship.”

“Uh huh, totally. This totally isn’t a gift. For your birthday.”

Itachi let out a low breath.

This didn’t stop Shisui.

“Twenty seventh birthday, wasn’t it?”

Itachi sighed again.

“Funny. Twenty seven perps collected for you.”

Itachi turned around, leaving Shisui behind.

“Has she told you her name yet?”

Itachi ignored him.

*****

The wind whipped at his windows, blustery and violent, pelting them with ice and snow. While his windows were closed, they were unlocked… yet the ice would no doubt have fused them shut.

Hours late.

She was hours late, but still Itachi refilled the kettle and set it back on the stove.

He took a deeper breath, staring out into the night.

He’d left the curtains open, though.

And his light on.

*****

Two weeks.

Every night he poured the hot water down the drain. Into his bathtub.

Once, over the window ledge before quickly drying it off to prevent it from re-freezing.

*****

Three weeks.

Perhaps she had moved on to a different area? Or quit entirely?

Itachi continued scrubbing the walls in the shower of his bathroom stall, the skin stretched tight over his knuckles.

Where was she?  
What was she doing?  
Finally, and at this he scrubbed harder, the last notion.

Was she okay?

*****

Four weeks.

A month.

Itachi hesitated as he put filled the kettle to put on the stove.

Should… should he go looking for her?

Twenty seven people. The chances that she came out unscathed were next to nil, even for someone of her calibre.

A muscle in his jaw twitched as he stared at the kettle in his hand.

“You don’t decorate for Christmas?”

He whirled around at the voice, her voice, the kettle still clenched in his hand.

“Heh, you don’t usually scare so easily,” she said, leaning against the doorway.

“New entrance?”

“Your window’s frozen shut again. I had to… improvise.”

“Again?”

She nodded.

So she’d been coming and he’d missed her…

“A name,” he said.

“This again—”

“Yours. A way to identify you. If something happens, who should I contact for you?”

“You want my next of kin?” she asked.

“For their sake,” said Itachi.

She folded her arms in front of her, watching him.

“Your brother,” she said, finally.

“Sasuke?”

She nodded, looking at the kettle in his hands. “So, do you have any leads for me tonight, or did I waste my night off?”

Night off…

But still, it had to have been dangerous for her to take out all those criminals. Alone.

“From now on, you call before you go in,” he said, going out to the cupboard where he kept his first aid kit and pulling out a small package for her.

“I work alone.”

“You call,” he said, dropping the package in her hands.

“What’s this? A burner?”

“Yes.”

She stared at the box in her hand.

“You’re serious.”

“Ah.”

She chuckled under her breath.

“He warned me you were overprotective.”

Setting the kettle on the stove, Itachi ignored her quip.

“I got you something, too,” she said. She pulled an envelope out of her pocket and handed it to him.

“Open it next Tuesday.”

Itachi accepted it and set it on the counter.

It was quiet between them for a full minute before she relaxed, leaning against the counter.

“So, how have you been?”

“Fine.”

Shaking her head, she turned, chuckling to herself.

“He warned me you were a bit of a reticent bastard, too.”

Itachi frowned.

  
*****

The letter had contained a date, location and time, giving him and Shisui time to organize their surveillance teams in advance for once, to assist with actually catching the criminals instead of simply collecting them.

“You’re sure it was meant for a team, right?” asked Shisui in a whisper as he and Itachi crouched behind a shipping container on the dockyard.

“What else?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe a date?”

“No.”

“She’s the only woman you’ve spoken about in months. You know that, right?”

“Irrelevant.”

Shisui groaned.

“One of these days you’re going to wake up and realize that you met the woman of your dreams and just let her disappear from your li—”

Itachi’s hand flipped up in their sign for silence.

The sound of footsteps, light and furtive. Many of them.

Shisui heard it, too.

“It’s early,” he said. “Has she called?”

“No.”

“Ahead of schedule?”

Itachi didn’t know how to answer Shisui’s question. It seemed odd to him, too. She was normally very organized, methodical and precise in her deployment.

Shisui lifted a hand to his ear to touch his comm.

“Hey, team seven, this is team one. Any motion on your side? Over.”

“Team one, this is team seven. Nothing over here. Over.”

“Hey, team four, this is team one. How about you? Over.”

The steps got closer.

Itachi pulled his phone out of his pocket, ignoring protocol, and checked the screen. No messages.

Where was she?

“Team one, this is team four. Nothing over here, either. Over.”

Itachi’s ears twitched at the faint sound of cloth and muffled bumping.

“They’re armed and coming our way in a hurry,” he said to Shisui. Itachi then tapped his own comm, overriding Shisui’s. “All teams this is team one, we’re being surrounded. Requesting immediate back-up for possible open-fire situation. Also requesting a medical evacuation team to be placed on standby. Requesting all teams maintain an open radio line with no chatter unless it is to request assistance—”

“What!”

“I repeat, this is team one—”

“Open fire!” screamed a voice from around the corner of Itachi and Shisui’s shipping container.

Then things got complicated.

Shisui grabbed at Itachi to throw him down and cover him.

Itachi grabbed Shisui to throw him down and cover him.

Gunfire erupted around them.

And then, from above them, a heavy bang sounded from the top of the shipping container, as if someone had just dropped a bag of potatoes on it.

A bag of potatoes with a semi-automatic weapon.

“Stay down!” cried a familiar female voice, before she lay down a strafe that immediately cut through her targets and provided cover for Itachi and Shisui to move to a safer location.

“I really like your girlfriend,” said Shisui as he and Itachi ducked behind a new shipping container. “You should invite her to the next family dinner.”

“Not now,” grunted Itachi as he reloaded.

*****

“It was a trap! My teams sustained critical injuries!”

“I didn’t run my mouth, so maybe you should talk to your teams about confidentiality.”

“My teams have been reliable and loyal since the day I assembled them.”

The woman’s lips pulled back as she sneered at Itachi in his kitchen that night.

“Why—what happened?” he asked, changing tack.

“You have a mole,” she snapped, turning away. “Fix your leak.”

*****

Sharing a late lunch with Shisui, Itachi felt his cellphone go off.

“Downtown. Ritter street. Rooftop.”

“You going?” asked Shisui.

Itachi pressed his lips together, then set the phone down on the table, face-down.

“You’re leaving her on her own?”

“She’s more than capable,” said Itachi.

“You think it’s another trap.”

“I think that we were the ones being trapped, on the docks.”

Shisui looked at Itachi, searching his face for clues.

“You feel guilty about something. You feel like something is your fault. Why are you punishing her? She clearly sent you this to rebuild the trust between you,” said Shisui, confused.

Itachi ignored him and ate his lunch, though the sandwiches had become tasteless and dry.

Yes, he felt guilty. Because she had been completely right about the mole. An internal review had found not one, but three moles within his elite teams. Internal Affairs had been giving him grief for the past week for not having picked up the signs, and now his entire department was being reviewed for possible evidence tampering, corruption and sabotage. Everything he’d worked so hard to accomplish was being whisked away.

And now he was getting texts from a vigilante.

He couldn’t risk it.

“We’ll check it out later,” he said.

*****

Itachi’s phone beeped again, and he continued ignoring it.

“She’s trying to get your attention,”said Shisui, leaning over from the passenger seat. “It could be important.”

“I’ll send a patrol car.”

“What if she needs help?”

A muscle in Itachi’s jaw ticked.

“In that case, if you aren’t interested, would you mind if I texted her back?”

With a careful, controlled movement, Itachi indicated and navigated into the next lane, then turned left.

“That’s the spirit.”

*****

Shit.  
  
Shit.Shit.Shit.

“That’s a lot of blood,” said Shisui.

“Too much,” agreed Itachi.

His hand drifted to his phone. Just to check. Just for a hint.

“Check it,” said Shisui. “Is she okay?”

Itachi swallowed when he saw the last message.

_“Where are you?”_ read Shisui.

He looked at Itachi.

*****  
  
 **TBC?**


End file.
